How do I introduce CO2 to the terrarium I put together the other day?
I bought an interesting large jar at a garage sale last year. I didn’t have much use for it, but I liked it so I bought it.
Soon after I bought it I got the idea to make it into a terrarium. I bought a philodendron.
The philodendron has sat in my house all through last summer and this winter, and finally, the other day, I decided to just do it.
I’m pleased with the way it turned out. Its leaves are perking right up.
However, to effect photosynthesis it needs carbon dioxide.
Can it produce it itself?
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Put some vinegar into some form of container inside the terrarium, then add baking soda. If you want to fill the entire (large) space with CO2, you might use 1 quart vinegar and 1 lb. soda.
Nice! But that’s a LOT of vinegar and a LOT of baking soda, isn’t it? And how often do I replenish it?
I had a terrarium for years and never worried about that, but mine was open at the top. You could just blow some air from your lungs into it occasionally. I had a client that had a huge greenhouse operation, 20 or 25 greenhouses. He used dried ice.
Peat moss or calcium carbonate ( marble chips ) both give off CO@.
Oh..peat moss! I can cram that in there! How often do I need to refresh it?
Plants are nearly exactly carbon neutral. The co2 they use for photosynthesis is nearly exactly the same as the co2 they release during respiration.
It is my understanding that oxygen is what they release during respiration, not CO2. Plants were the organisms that filled the atmosphere with oxygen, billions of years ago, allowing animal life to form.
Plants give off about half of what they absorb
I’m just not seeing that in what I’m reading. Can you help me out? This is what I see:
Wiki: “Photosynthesis maintains atmospheric oxygen levels and supplies all of the organic compounds and most of the energy necessary for life on Earth.[4]”
In sunlight green plants produce oxygen. But when the sun goes down they revert back to respiration and they use oxygen and produce carbon dioxide.
Plants are “carbon neutral” in the sense that if you burn them you have not added any additional CO2 into the atmosphere.
Plants give off more CO2 at night when photosynthesis is not happening. It’s given off during the day too but not near the amount that is absorbed. All in all more is absorbed.
Thanks you guys. Do you have some links?
@Dutchess_III If you put a lid on the terrarium, you shouldn’t need to replenish it, although the live plants will give off oxygen as they absorb the CO2. And CO2 is heavier that oxygen so it will sit at the bottom, barring breezes, and not go anywhere. The naturally occurring CO2 in the air around the terrarium should replenish it enough, sans lid. I assume you wanted a heavy CO2 initial charge to really do something for the plants?? How much baking soda and vinegar you need depends on how big your terrarium is and how tall the plants are. A lb. of soda and a qt. of vinegar should at least fill a 5 gallon unit. (My guess.)
Well, I can’t decide whether to leave the lid on or off. I kind of like the way it looks on, but I have a feeling that off would be a better choice for the plant.
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